Until last night, it had been a while until DDoS attacks affected any of the popular bitcoin and altcoin exchanges.

The latest reports now indicate that a couple of hours ago, popular bitcoin exchange Poloniex was the target of a strong DDoS attack, which not only took the site offline, but it also affected the API, and therefore forced the exchange to stop carrying out transactions.

The announcement was made via a Twitter post, which read: ‘It appears we’re under a DDOS attack. We’re investigating and working on getting the site back online as quickly as we can’. Luckily, the security team behind the company managed to quickly mitigate the attack, and restore service.

However, it is believed that the attack was in fact a stress test, meant to differently target the attack next time, or even force the exchange to make a security mistake. This strategy has been put to use before, so Poloniex will have to be particularly careful in the near future.

For those who do not know, Poloniex can be considered one of the best altcoin exchanges, as it works hard to introduce as many coins as possible, while also keeping the services up and running at all times. In our review of the exchange, The Merkle also noted its friendly customer support, trading fee structure and more.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you think about the DDoS attack carried out on Poloniex? Was it the full attack, or just a simple stress test? Let us know your thoughts in the comment section below.